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Brent Kininmont

New Zealand is better-placed than other English-speaking nations to help Japan’s goal of internationalizing its citizens, according to Ambassador Phillip Gibson. New Zealand Ambassador Phillip Gibson “We’ve got good educational standards, good educational institutions and frankly, we’re much, much more competitive than other countries” ...

Some Kiwis can fly — very fast. But the New Zealand government wants to clip their wings. Fourteen months ago, the Royal New Zealand Air Force was on the verge of snaring a fleet of F-16 fighter jets to replace its aging A-4 Skyhawk ...

To convince consumers they should update their precious video collections to DVD, movie companies often add enticing extras that can’t be found elsewhere. It’s a marketing gimmick, but film buffs win, too. Here are five movies that look better on DVD: Le Grand Bleu ...

BEIRUT, Lebanon — There aren’t many obstacles in the way of exploring Lebanon’s crumbling train stations. But at St. Michel, once the hub of the nation’s now-defunct rail network, a man eyeing my camera says I need permission to look around. Already obsolete when ...

While Wellington and Tokyo must agree to disagree over Japan’s whaling program, the issue should not impede trade ties, visiting New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Thursday. “It’s a difference of opinion,” she said in an interview in Tokyo with The Japan Times ...

Helen Clark is not afraid to snap at the hand that helps feed her nation. A year after an exchange of terse statements with Tokyo over its whaling program, the New Zealand prime minister is visiting Japan with a high-level trade delegation to strengthen ...

ITAIBARA, Tottori Pref. — The death of this village’s sister looms large in the collective memory of its residents. Local officials believe they can attract sightseers to the village of Itaibara, Tottori Prefecture, if the exteriors of its early-Showa Era buildings are restored. But ...

YOKOTA, Shimane Pref. — The curator of this town’s abacus museum must have a sense of black humor to have included one of the first Sharp calculators in the display. After all, Yokota’s economy was built on the “soroban” — or Japanese abacus — ...

KASHIMA, Shimane Pref. — For 50 years, she has lived on a dead-end street at the foot of a hill. Since 1974, the Shimane nuclear power plant has sat on the other side of the hill. “At first, of course, we were very afraid,” ...

“Before I continue to pour out my soul, let me confide in you that Lebanon is one of those countries that produces nothing but its own periodic tragedies.” –“Dear Mr Kawabata,” by Rashid al-Daif BEIRUT — Yasunari Kawabata’s mark on the literary world did ...